Old time computer lovin - Woz style

As reported throughout the computer press (Wired article), a guy called Vince Briel is making and selling $US200 replicas of the Apple I. Worried about the IP (intellectual property) contained in the Apple I ROM and unable to get an answer from Apple, Vince contacted Woz directly. Woz was, as you would imagine, amped that Vince was making the relicas and gave his personal OK. It turns out Woz had already released the code and schematics to the infamous Homebrew Computer Club before he and Steve Jobs comercialised it, so it was already in the public domain (I can't imagine Woz put a copyright disclaimer in his code - very un-Woz-like).

I especially love how Vince spent days UNimplementing features in the modern chipsets he is using (I mean how boring would life be if you could backspace!). Unfortunately ASCII encoded keyboards are hard to come by these days, so the replica has a PS2 port. Urgh - he could at least have used ADB and then we could use a IIGS keyboard...

The one missing feature is the cassette interface - so no storing your programs. Apparently someone is workin on it. Besides, you need the cassette interface to generate audio into your hifi - or was the on the Apple II only?

Also those of us who have a luxurious 625 scan lines on our TV will need to dig up an NTSC format monitor from somewhere...